Single deck of cards project.

http://a-single-deck-of-cards.blogspot.com/

This link will take you to my other blog with the project I did over the summer

Evaluation: My digital World

For the project my digital world I origonally had the idea to take a picture of myself next to a computer and a globe next to the computer with the background in a tron type style, That quickly changed into digital device with neon type colours, that once again changed into a digital device infected and spreading the virus into the real world. In terms of research I looked at images of computers with a virus, which did not really help, so i then just searched virus's and got some results showing bacteria, It was those images that inspired me to create tentricles to symbolize the virus spreading. I do not have an artist link of any kind because this was my own raw idea.

The prototype image I did ( In the post below ) was a good starting point and the foundation for the final five images, the outcomes for all five were great, my favourite among the five was of a security camera which I coloured gold/yellow with black infections spreading. All was going great until a issue came up, my memory sti ck containing my final five images became currupt and un-useable, I was able to recover two final images of the college laptop but the other three I could not recover the rather ironic thing about it was that my project is about digital devices and my own device breaks on me.

The weakness in this project was my own memory stick breaking, If the group was allowed to put our images on the backup then pay later then I could have still had five images to place in the exhibition, the strengths I think was the overall development of my idea, going from an image too obvious to something more complexed in terms of what I was aiming to get across.

Overall I think I did well on the project, despite the setback I was able to present two of my most developed images at the exhibition.

Project Progress.

My original image was going to be of myself, a computer and a globe all made into a tron type style. After carefully looking over I decided to do something a little less obvious to the title of the project, After taking an image of a computer and editing it on Photoshop and Picnik, the outlook was interesting.


The Image is what I mentioned above, I really like how the tron like neon effect has come out and looks some what threatening, like it was infected by an evil virus.

This was the first prototype image I created using a mix of photoshop and picnik, really like the the tron type effect I achieved by accident, it worked out really well and will be the general foundation for my photos.

It was at this point I decided to create Five Image's all themed around a digital item, infected with a virus and spreading into the outside world. The objects I began to work with were my memory stick for starters, I then followed on with an infected laptop, followed by a security camera, then an image of my signature sunglasses been infected, and finally one of just the memory stick on its own.

This was the first of my final images showing my memory stick pluged into a laptop and spreading a virus around the socket. I also pixelated some of the memory stick to reinforce the digital world feel.

This is the second image, I used my memory stick and signature sunglasses to show the virus infecting something I use, by accident I created a matrix type background which really worked well with the memory stick and sunglasses.

Entry 17/05/2011

I did have my finals chosen and ready for printing this week, then in a odd case of bad luck my memory stick containing my final images just stopped working. so while at college yesterday I went onto my own hardrive on the computer and luckily found two of the three final images, unfortunatly my most favourite image was unrecoverable due to it been only on my memory stick. I did have a third image which I was going to use as my third, but my tutor in photography suggests I go with two final images since they are more developed than the new third one. I find it rather ironic that my own digital memory device breaks while working on this my digital world project.

I just wish I could have put my images on the back up hard drive THEN pay for my images the following week, the loss of the gold infected security camera was major, myself and most of the class really liked it.

Fortunatly the two images I have chosen have a section where I can place down markings to make it seem like the infection is spreading into our world. When they are mounted they should look effective.

Digital world Images 11/05/2011

This entry is an update on what I have done in the past month.
In my past most recent entry I explained my idea and what I plan to do, the idea itself has changed very little, I still went with the whole digital device infecting our world but some things have changed such as:

• Instead of having all the devices and infections red, I have decided to give each image its own colour.
• I changed the background using photoshop and picnik ( an online photo editing programn ). I made the background appear as if our world was been converted into a digital world due to the infection.

I was also given the idea to draw the infection coming out of the photo itself reinforcing the idea that it can be a danger if left unchecked, I have been told that the gallery surface would be the same as a whiteboard surface so I may draw the infection on using whiteboard pens due to there strong colours.

New Final Image Idea

After going through several different techniques in creating an image like my first final idea I discussed with my tutors on what else I can do, one of my side ideas was to take photos of anything digital or some form of technology and make it appear this thing was infected with a virus and spreading out to the real world, I had this Idea from the terminator movies and how technology may eventually become a real danger.

I looked at several images of bacteria to give me something to go by when I draw on the virus infection, I went with an organic tentrical look because that is how I see a virus, alive and reaching out for its next digital device to infect.

So far the idea has been showing good results, once they are done I will maybe put up an example on this post to show what I was going for.

My Digital World Final Image Idea.

Idea

My final Idea for the my digital world project is to take an image of myself next to a computer which has digital written across the screen and next to that a globe which will look digitalized through photoshop, the image will litrally be saying "My (myself) Digital(monitor) World(globe)".

Research

This image is simerlar to what I may do for the globe in my photo showing coding which you find when you check a computers digital systems. I may also place this kind of coding in the background giving a more digital world feel, as if I am in the computer exploring the codes.

This is a quick example of what the computer monitor would say in my final photograph Im also thinking of possibly giving the monitor itself a neon outline giving it a more digital futuristic look. 

As for myself in this photo I am thinking about possibly giving my outline a neon glow and the other is to put computer coding on certain areas of my clothing for example my hat or jacket.

As for the background I would give it a digital tron like feel, the lines of the walls would be highlighted and given a bright neon colour to make it look like the inside of a program.

Josef Schulz & Thomas Ruff

Josef Schulz:

• Went to Dusseldorf Academy of art under Prof. Bernd Becher 1993-1999.
• Took photos of checkpoints and other small buildings simerlar to becher's water towers.
• His photos have a faded background effect.
• Photographs landscapes and buildings then removes the detail so only the structure remains.
• Graphic/Computer generated style images.
• Removes brand names and identifying features anywhere to be seen.

Thomas Ruff

• Liked pixelated images from the internet.
• Obscures 'ugly' parts of buildings and images which look clearer from a distance

Inspired Pixels

Today I looked at Thomas Ruff and Josef Schulz who both edited there photos digitally such as photoshop, The things they did were making structures  appear either isolated or making them look more digital. 

I took a shot at making a couple of my images as pixelated as possible although it was difficult to figure out at first, with some help I managed to get a couple of pixelated images.

The pixels in this image are very visable and appear to be going in a grid-like fashion.

This image when I zoomed in still clearly showed the pixels but it also seems to have lost its colour going into a black and white view.

Exploring Pixels

The second half of the lesson requiered us to take a some what in depth look at the pixels from one of the two photos we took. I chose the photo taken on the mobile because I thought the pixels would be much easier to see.

The pixels are visable in this image and can be seen breaking apart where the writing is.

The image has now been zoomed in on and croped again the pixels appear to brake apart around the wording.

Been this zoomed in its impossible to tell what this is, almost all the indavidual pixels are visable.

Bluetooth

The aim for the first half of this lesson was to take a couple of photos with a mobile phone and a digital camera. There was a issue with getting the photo from the mobile phone on to the computer although bluetooth claims to be easy and simple to use, but after todays complications I doubt it. The first problem was finding the right computer, there was around 4 or 5 mini macs all sharing the same name, after eventually finding the right computer there was the problem of uploading the picture from my phone to the computer which again proved to be rather frustraiting. After several failed attempts a friend and fellow photography student helped me out in getting my picture from the phone to the computer.

This photo was taken using the camera on my phone, the resolution is clearly not as great (when enlarged) as a digital camera but still has some detail to it. 

This photo was taken using a compact digital camera, the differences between the two photos is that the image overall looks slightly brighter, the words are more readable insted of been slightly blurred and due to more resolution/pixels the detail is improved.